Matthew 7: 1-5, 12
“Don’t judge others, and God won’t judge you. If you judge others, you will be judged the same way you judge them. God will treat you the same way you treat others.
“Why do you notice the small piece of dust that is in your friend’s eye, but you don’t notice the big chunk of wood that is in your own? Why do you say to the stranger, to your friend, ‘Let me take that piece of dust out of your eye’? Look at yourself first! You still have that big piece of wood in your own eye. First, take care of your own issues, take the wood out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to get the dust out of another’s eye.
“Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get.
We are each one of us judged everyday - we are judged by every person we come in contact with. While some of those judgments are consciously made, most of them are not. They are fleeting and instantaneous and the “judge-er” is likely to be unaware they have just judged you. We do this to others, of course - and we, also, are mostly unaware that we are doing it.
Most of the time our judgment is that the other is “normal” - whatever that may mean for us. Probably it means they look and act like us. We judge them and pass on by - unless our judgment is somehow negative and then we may become aware of our judging. We judge people by the way they dress, the color of their skin, their presumed nationality, the way they drive a car - why, I can tell at a single glance whether a driver is rational or an idiot - just ask me! We judge others by the way they style their hair, for pete’s sake! With a single glance we decide if they are or are not a worthwhile member of society – if they are smart or dumb - if they are deserving or not – whether they are important enough to warrant our time and attention, or not.
Just watch the news for half an hour. It’s the most depressing thing you can do. It is nothing but stories of people judging other people unworthy of being thought of as a fellow human – whether it’s as local as a purse-snatcher judging that his need for his next hit is more important than the welfare of the elderly woman he shoves to the ground without caring if she breaks her bones or not, or as world-newsy as the Ukrainian separatists who judge that their hatred and rage is more important than the lives of a plane full of people. If we pay attention, we notice that people rarely seem to be “for” anyone or anything anymore - we are all “against” something or someone.
We can’t change the people in any of these instances. All we ever can change is ourselves. Ask ourselves what we want and then give that to others, Jesus tells us. The point is not to look at someone and judge them beneath you but still choose to minister to them - because "that’s what a Christian does.” The point is to look at a person and not judge them at all – and that is very, very hard to do - very hard. But we are told very, very clearly that judging is not our business. Period.
When we talk of what this church will be, my dearest dream is that it will be a place where we don’t judge – ourselves, each other, strangers at our door, people we pass on the street – no one. That we simply love them as Jesus tells us to do. That will take hard work – very hard work - and attention – ans determination, but that is my idea of heaven on earth. That is my prayer for us all.
Most of the time our judgment is that the other is “normal” - whatever that may mean for us. Probably it means they look and act like us. We judge them and pass on by - unless our judgment is somehow negative and then we may become aware of our judging. We judge people by the way they dress, the color of their skin, their presumed nationality, the way they drive a car - why, I can tell at a single glance whether a driver is rational or an idiot - just ask me! We judge others by the way they style their hair, for pete’s sake! With a single glance we decide if they are or are not a worthwhile member of society – if they are smart or dumb - if they are deserving or not – whether they are important enough to warrant our time and attention, or not.
Just watch the news for half an hour. It’s the most depressing thing you can do. It is nothing but stories of people judging other people unworthy of being thought of as a fellow human – whether it’s as local as a purse-snatcher judging that his need for his next hit is more important than the welfare of the elderly woman he shoves to the ground without caring if she breaks her bones or not, or as world-newsy as the Ukrainian separatists who judge that their hatred and rage is more important than the lives of a plane full of people. If we pay attention, we notice that people rarely seem to be “for” anyone or anything anymore - we are all “against” something or someone.
We can’t change the people in any of these instances. All we ever can change is ourselves. Ask ourselves what we want and then give that to others, Jesus tells us. The point is not to look at someone and judge them beneath you but still choose to minister to them - because "that’s what a Christian does.” The point is to look at a person and not judge them at all – and that is very, very hard to do - very hard. But we are told very, very clearly that judging is not our business. Period.
When we talk of what this church will be, my dearest dream is that it will be a place where we don’t judge – ourselves, each other, strangers at our door, people we pass on the street – no one. That we simply love them as Jesus tells us to do. That will take hard work – very hard work - and attention – ans determination, but that is my idea of heaven on earth. That is my prayer for us all.
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